A magazine of features and articles for kids focussed on the world we live in. Non fiction features for children on festivals, customs, traditions, art, craft, dance, music, culture, ways of life, history, cinema, sport, champions, rare feats, artists, education, thinkers, famous people, and much more. Also articles BY kids who write on the world around them.
264 items in this section. Displaying page 10 of 27
The Telegraph
In 1833 John Herschel, a British astronomer, went to South Africa to study the southern skies. He took with him a powerful telescope and many other instruments. He wanted to make charts and maps of the sky which people in the northern half of the world never saw. John Herschel planned to stay at the Cape of Good Hope for three or four years to complete his work. Then Richard Locke, a reporter on the staff of the New York Sun, had a bright idea....
Nadia Comaneci
Born on November 12, 1961, Nadia is a Romanian gymnast who was the heroine of the 1976 Olympic games at Montreal. She won gold medals for performances in the balance beam, uneven parallel bars and the all-round event, plus a silver medal in the team event and a bronze medal in the floor exercises. Comaneci was awarded a score of 10 for her initial exercise on the uneven parallel bars at the Montreal Olympics, marking the first perfect score recorded in Olympic competition....
Rediscovering a Smoke-less Diwali
Think of Diwali and firecrackers start exploding in the mind – that is how strong the association of crackers is with the festival of lights. Legend has it that on Diwali, the sound of firecrackers resounds through the universe, announcing the homecoming of Lord Rama after a long period of exile. Another legend says that people began exploding crackers to convey to the gods, their joy at being alive and well on earth. Rediscovering a Smoke-less Diwali [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Now come back to the present when the uncontrolled celebration of the victory of good over evil itself seems to have become a source of pollution....
When Grandma challenged British Rule
Whenever I go to my ancestral home in Nainital, I never forget to brush my hand across an engraved name-plate and feel the name on it. The name belongs to my great grandfather who used to work for the British Empire. For his loyalty, he was rewarded with the title of ‘Rai Saheb’. Having worked with the British for years, Rai Saheb gained in wealth and name. And everyone in the household feared him. Well, not exactly....
The Making of the Goddess
On an ordinary day, the names Kumartuli and Krishnanagar would not make much of a difference to a Bengali. But come Durga Puja, and these two ordinary towns near Calcutta, become the focus of great attention. For it is here that the clay idols of Durga are made. This age-old tradition of clay sculpture has been preserved by the community of Pals. Months before the Puja, clay artisans start to breathe life into the images of Durga....
Dad and the Dog
If you happen to come across a man talking to a large, brown dog, carrying on a realtime, honest-to-god, heart-to-heart conversation, although the dog doesn’t appear to be saying very much, what would you think? Is the guy a candidate for the nut factory, has he lost what little was left of his mind, or is he just another dog owner? If he is called Mr Joshi, and his mate on the leash is called Pluto, there goes my Pop and his most precious companion....
From Heaven To Hell
Kaz Suyeishi will never forget the quiet peace of the cloudless August morning in 1945. The 18-year-old was in the front garden of her home in Hiroshima. She was chatting with a friend, when a gleam of silver in the sky caught her attention. “It looked like an angel,” she said. “It was the most beautiful airplane. It looked like heaven and peace.” From Heaven To Hell [Image Source: Darkness of a Thousand Suns: Causes, Complexion and Consequences of the Nuclear Arms Race, by Delhi Science Forum] The plane was ‘Enola Gay’, dropping the world’s first atomic bomb, nicknamed ‘Little Boy’, over the Japanese city, on August 6....
Madhubani Magic of Gangadevi
Aditi De of the ‘Women’s Feature Service’ writes about a meeting she had in the 1980s, with Gangadevi, the gifted painter of Mithila. Gangadevi is largely responsible for placing an ancient art, practiced for centuries by the women of her village, in the artistic map of the world. Face to face, Gangadevi, seemed shy at first glance. She drew the pallav (the border of the sari) of her brightly coloured cotton sari over her head, and pushed her black-rimmed spectacles firmly onto the bridge of her nose....
Don't Stop the Music, I Want to Dance
Joseph Templin or Joe is an American teenager who loves to dance. He knows how to do a moonwalk, a swing, a twirl – all popular dance steps. The minute the music begins to flow, this lanky but handsome nineteen-year old, is all charged-up and itching to dance . Nothing is extraordinary about this except for one little fact. Joseph is profoundly deaf. Which means that he cannot hear a note of the music he dances to so beautifully....
Alpana
Thousands of years ago when humans did not know how to read and write he communicated by means of drawing pictures. The walls of caves where early man lived, whether it was in India or France, have been found to be full with primitive drawings. The art of alpana, practised by Indian women for centuries, is one such form of visual expression. Alpana has different names in different parts of India. In Bengal, it is Alpana, it is Kolam in south India, Rangoli in Maharashtra, Osa in Orissa, Aripana in Bihar, Sonarakha in Uttar Pradesh, Sathiya in Gujarat, Aripona in other regions of north India and Apna in western Himalayas....